the supremes, where did our love go? let's play hardball. good evening, i'm chris matthews. in washington, leading off tonight, spin cycle. the republicans are crossing their fingers that the supreme court knocks down all or part of the health care law and they're already preparing their general attacks on obamacare. the democrats, too, are ready to declare the supreme court a partisan tool of the right if the law goes down. how bad would a loss be to president obama? can the democrats really turn a loss to their political advantage? plus, talk about an image problem. in just the last week, mitt romney has had his etch a sketch moment, revealed that he's building a house with an elevator just for the cars, and yesterday he joked about when

his dad shut down a factory in michigan. can anybody save this guy from himself? plus, the tale of the tape. george zimmerman said he shot trayvon martin after martin broke his nose and repeatedly slammed his head into a concrete sidewalk. but newly released videotape of zimmerman arriving at the police station appears to show no evidence of a broken nose or obvious wounds to the back of zimmerman's head. it doesn't prove anything exactly, but it is raising more questions about what exactly happened that night. and from our own rachel maddow, she's got a new book out, "drift. the unmooring of american military power." it's been progressively easy for our country to go to war with fewer consequences for fewer people. how wars are made painless to the general public and therefore easy to start.

i can't think of a more important topic. we begin with a spin from both sides of obamacare. chuck todd, political director, and major garrett here for the national journal. i find it easy to be republican if obamacare is declared unconstitutional. >> they already won. they got it in front of the supreme court. this is already a win for the republican side of the argument. they've called it into question. it is a coin flip. it is the fact that we don't know what the decision is going to be, and if it's upheld, they get to then run against it as a piece of legislation and say, if you reelect -- either way, this is a win. >> he's behaved under the constitution. he can hit them with everything. >> right. objectively, this is a win for the republicans if it goes down.

>> if it goes down. we don't know what's going to happen. let us slow down for a moment and say we don't know what the court is going to rule. we are all practiced in the art of watching tough questions turn into different results when the opinion is handed down. that being said, it was not a good two and a half days for the white house or for this law. and when the white house said yesterday, arguing its constitutional justification in part by saying, this idea originally came from the heritage foundation, the supreme court and the constitution don't care that the idea came from the heritage foundation. they don't care that it passed in massachusetts. they can do things the federal government may not be able to. but neither one of those two facts, heritage foundation or law in massachusetts, make any particular development -- >> the cartoon story is yours. the cartoon story is the democrats had elmer fudd out there arguing for him and he blew it. but i haven't heard anyone say the administration won the argument. >> there is no evidence listening to those audiotapes

and supreme court hearings that they brought a strong case. >> oral arguments don't always matter that much. it's more the justices -- the questions are asking -- are actually starting to liberate. >> and the federal lower courts and what they have said, and they have said in greater numbers that the law is constitutional as opposed to saying it's unconstitutional. >> the republicans have wasted no time in putting out a misleading web to pounce on the health care law. let's listen. >> case 11398, the department of health and human services versus florida. >> for more than 80% of americans, the insurance system does provide effective access. excuse me.

because of the -- the -- excuse me. >> well, that's verrilli, of course, trying to make the case. let's take a look at the actual supreme court video. verrilli did not get off to a great start, they increased it, they made him look like a fool. >> they've now done damage to the goal a lot of us in the media would like to have, which is actually to get audio and video from the supreme court in realtime. but by showing how easily they would politically distort that, i think you're going to have a lot of defenders of the judiciary branch saying this is what happens. no more of this, we don't want this like this because we don't want to be used politically. we're trying to oversee a branch of government here in as non-political a fashion as we can. >> there's something else that chaps me, calling him obama's lawyer. he is not obama's lawyer.

he's a nations lawyer, okay? >> let's talk to james carver, in all fairness, is a clinton guy. he says the democratic party could benefit if the supreme court rejects the president's health care law. let's hear his argument. i think it's strained but let's listen. >> i think that this will be the best thing that ever happened to the democratic party, because i think health care costs are going to escalate unbelievably. you know what the democrats are going to say, and it's completely justified. we tried, we did something, go see a 5-4 majority. they overturned an election, and just as a professional democrat, did nothing about it in overturning this thing 5-4. then the republican party will own the health care system for the foreseeable future. i really believe that. that is not spin. >> that's not spin, it is spin. he's going to go out there and make a lot of money. james is a very smart guy, he's

going to make a case. is he right? in the near term between now and november, he says the democrats. will president obama benefit from an argument the supreme court screwed them that was totally partisan? >> i don't buy a benefit. i could see them fighting this to a political wash where -- i think it's going to be ugly. >> do you have to avoid the court to do that. they have to attack the polarization of the republic and i think the republican party. one thing they have gotten him to. how to survive and overturn. that it will be a 5-4 decision. >> do you think the president of the united states would ever attack members of the supreme court? >> that doesn't mean the party won't, that doesn't mean surrogates won't. in the state of the union two years ago, he criticized the citizens united case while they were sitting right below the rostrum.

so he has demonstrated before -- >> can he attack the decision without attacking the court? >> i don't think so. again, if this is overturned, again we don't know, but if it is, republicans will say the president of the united states which took an oath to uphold the constitution who taught constitutional law bases it on a law that was unconstitutional. therefore, he is a president who needs to be replaced.fbases it a law that was unconstitutional. therefore, he is a president who needs to be replacelaw that was. therefore, he is a president who needs to be replacea law that was unconstitutional. therefore, he is a president who needs to be replacelaw that was. therefore, he is a president who needs to be replaced. republicans will say that. >> they'll make a competency argument. >> won't they go further and say, no. this is one of the assets the white house has, and it's called mitt romney and the fact that he was an advocate for the mandate. yes, it's state versus federal, but he's been all over the place and they believe that is what is going to make it harder for

republicans. >> exposure mitt. if i could write a script, i think he would be a stronger candidate. but for months and years, people have asked me what's the difference between my health care plan and the president's. mine is constitutional. his isn't. >> that will be the response that he has. >> that's a pretty good response. >> but they also believe other issues will overtake this. i don't buy it. i think it's a tougher subject for the president than he will admit. >> do you think it's good to think ahead and recognize there are perils for defeat? are they prepared to take a beating on this in june? do they have a plan for taking a loss on this? >> that's why they rushed it. don't forget, they have a decision to make. >> do they have a plan? >> politically, yes. >> which is to blame the court. >> which is to blame the court. and to say we tried. the house called it a tax. the senate called it a penalty.

and to keep the bill alive when they lost the majority, they used the word penalty. they made a political decision, and that is in part with fingerprints. >> out of the weeds. into the reality. 40 million people uninsured. for the progressives watching this show right now, will the president now resort to single payor and say i tried to go down the middle with this heritage foundation moderate court, i'm now going the ted kennedy route? >> you'll see some call for that, expansion of medical care, but you may see it as do it the way the highway bill goes. you force states to have their own mandate and you tie funds to hin mum coverage. >> can you do that constitutionally. >> sure. although with medicaid, that's the challenge. >> that's how they told us we have to have a 21-year-old drinking age.

you think this might pass some muster, to do it that way. >> we'll find out what this medicaid challenge is. it's going to tell us some constitutional -- >> it's going to tell us whether health care can be done in the market. they don't say by single parent. >> would you be surprised if they strike it down? were you surprised this was even a prospect? i always thought there might be a problem but i never heard it discussed politically as a prospect, that they might actually get his major achievement just ripped off the books. >> i always thought health care and the push was a huge risk. it feels like the biggest risk ever taken since i started covering washington in 1990. >> this will be hard on the

republicans if the dispute. i always wonder how this affects hillary clinton and her campaign. down the road, you could say we are always trashed. >> yeah. bottom line, the problem persists. mitt romney's latest 1% moments. he's building a garage with an elevator in his garage for his cars. is that for if he loses or if he wins? is that reward or a consolation. he also talked about how as a father he had to fire a bunch of people. why should i try it? my system gets out of sorts but that comes with age, right?

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california home that he's building will have an elevator in it, which is pretty ritzy to begin with, but this elevator is for cars. he even has his own lobbyist out to expand massively the footprint of his house. plus romney is making jokes about how his dad -- ha, ha, ha, ha, ha -- closed down a factory in michigan. isn't that a hoot? topic number 2 in his section, michigan may be the last state where he can prove he's over it. one of them is going to zoos, one is goes to bowling alleys. to start off with, we go to mcmann for the easy opportunity, easy picking. this guy has designed a house which includes an elevator for cars.

now, i'm not sure what you use an elevator for cars, but he wants one. is this going to suggest that he's either building a giant consolation prize if he loses, or this is where the western white house is going to be housed? >> remember, chris, his wife drives a cadillac, actually, a couple of them, and he drives a pickup and something else, so when you have that many cars, you have to have a place to put them. when you build on the side of a mountain, you need an elevator, especially when you have that many cars. you're absolutely right, this reinforces a negative image about mitt romney, and every time he opens his mouth even to say something serious, he makes a laughing stock of himself and it's going to be difficult to recover. that's why his numbers are upside down. he's got about a net negative 30 rating, favorable and unfavorable. >> you have a candidate here that's a bit of a cartoon, richie rich. >> it is right now. i think as we get past the

primary and into the general election, he's going to have to gracefully transition to a more general recollection candidate. he'll have to focus on his record -- >> what about his house plan? >> i'm shocked somebody running for president would have wealth. >> would you tell him to get rid of the elevator? >> i don't think this is the issue. >> of course, he would. >> i care about his record as governor. did he make it more efficient? did he cut spending? you got to focus on his record. >> you're being mocked by mr. mcmann, by the way. >> i know. >> john is a great strategist and he absolutely would tell him to get rid of the elevator, he just can't say it right now, right, john? >> i have been touting rubio because i've been watching him on tv. else a smart guy of the future. he has now finally endorsed mitt romney. he didn't have much choice on fox, but he wasn't exactly shouting with joy.

listen to this strained endorsement from the future of the republican party. >> i am going to endorse mitt romney and the reason why is not only because he's going to be the republican nominee, but he offers at this point such a stark contrast to the president's record. >> so we're stuck with him and the president stinks. therefore, i love this guy. think that through. >> if you actually watch that whole segment, he actually endorsed him very heartily. mark rubio would make a great president. >> what do you think? >> it sounded very tepid. i am going to endorse romney, he is the next nominee. it didn't sound real positive. >> played by santorum, he is very good at bowling. he wants to challenge mitt romney to a bowling match, which is fine with me, but it isn't going to prove nothing because it will just prove one guy is a working class guy and the other

is an elitist. then again, the president comes offer that way, too. >> i think gingrich and santorum have the same role as the harlem globetrotters. santorum will keep winning in the left, which i don't think there are any left. >> those are the guys who played the globetrotters and regularly lost, right? in fact, i think they generally lost by 15 points. why is newt gingrich running? >> he ran because he believes if his ideas and thought he could carry on his ideas. >> there was a summit meeting recently between the two. here's any conspiratorial mind thinking and speaking because i want steve to respond to this. do you think romney is keeping

gingrich in the race just to make sure there is no chance of a breakout by santorum, or is that an old strategy that's been disbanded? >> i actually think that's an old strategy. here's what i think is going on. mitt romney can do the math, newt gingrich can do the math. they know they can't possibly get the delegates that would secure the nomination, but mitt romney can't, either. he's going to go into the convention without enough delegates, and newt gingrich understands that if the convention delegates were ever released, they wouldn't vote for the flip-flop in massachusetts. they would vote for a conservative candidate, maybe somebody who is not running. >> no, that's not going to happen. romney is going to get it. these types of meetings are usually, chris, they're usually about paying off campaign debt, and they always deny it, but my guess is -- >> do you think he'll forgive

mitt romney that bombing that went on in iowa that destroyed him, all that negative advertising? i heard people never forgive in politics. >> what about the vp thing with santorum? is there a chance santorum is on the ticket? >> i don't think so. >> this guy is an older gentleman, he's made a lot of money in the casino business. he says it's time for gingrich to pack it up. he's bankrolling in tens of thousands of dollars. time's up. vacant the premises. let's watch. >> i'm in favor of newt gingrich because i like people who make decisions. he's a decision maker. it appears as though he's at the end of his line. because, mathematically, you can't get anywhere near the numbers and there is unlikely to be a broken convention.

>> i would say he's pretty good at it. in fact, they invited us to put up some of these casinos. >> this is why newt gingrich is now charging people $50 to have their picture taken with him, because sheldon is not there to provide the bankroll that lets the campaign go on. i think this is a problem for gingrich. >> how many pictures does allison get? i figure allison has paid for a lot of pictures. >> usually it's about $1,000. i don't think that's very much. >> sporting achievement here, i must say you're guilty of it. up next, that romney etch a sketch comment. stick around for that. etch a sketch ain't going anywhere. you're watching "hardball."

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back to "hardball." first up, the individual broccoli mandate. if the government can force you to buy health insurance, can it also force you to buy other things you might not want, like broccoli. the so-called broccoli argument was at the center of the arguments this tuesday. last week steven colbert found the issue too juicy -- if broccoli is juicy -- to resist. >> obamacare is dead. it was killed by nine people in black robes. i told you there would be death panels. the lynchpin of this is the alleged mandate.

>> people have to buy food sooner or later. therefore, you can make people buy broccoli. >> this case is really about broccoli. why is the government trying to make us eat it? next they're going to make us eat the rest of our vegetables including the lima beans. and they'll make us give our grandma a kiss even though she smells like old tupperware. i'm not going to have my decisions made by barack obama, or should i say broccoliobama. >> broccoli brought up a total of eight times at the hearing. >> has anybody wondered what it's like to be backstage with president obama. they were smashed when he brought his stand-up routine to a fundraiser. here he is telling jimmy fallon about it. >> i expect him to be like, thank you for your time, here's your photo. that's what i'm expecting.

he comes back and says, this is the roots. how's it going, y'all? he's like, aziz, how you doing? what are you blowing up to? i'm like, huh? why are you talking to me like my little brother aniz? don't you have the nuclear codes? this brother acts exactly the way i would act if i was the president. >> i don't know if that's true. anyway, democrats can't resist taking aim at those etch a sketch ads lately. >> what the lobbyists want, what wall street wants, they want etch a sketch senators. they want the ones who will clear the screen and change their minds to do whatever big money tells them to do.

>> i guess that's trickle down politics. anyway, enough of that. up next, my colleague rachel maddow will be here in a moment. she argues in her brilliant new book "drift," that it's easier to go to war in this country because they make it nicer to go to war. not for the people fighting it. you're watching "hardball." everyone in america depends on the postal service. i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions. yeah, but the feeling wasn't always mutual. i want you to grow big! if you grow for me, you'll get cookies for free. nothing worked. ♪

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house republicans pass a $3.5 trillion budget plan which include as sweeping revamp p medicare. the measure is doomed in the senate. governors from three states toured the plant where the ammonia treated meat dubbed pink slime is made. they didn't taste the filler which does meet federal standards. and the mega millions jackpot hits $540 million.

it could rise even further as more tickets are sold ahead of tomorrow's drawing. tonight, the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come. for the first time in 12 years, no american military forces are in vietnam. all of our american p.o.w.s are on their way home. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was richard nixon on this day 39 years ago announcing withdrawal of the last american combat troops from vietnam. by the way, he could have made that speech when he took office. it's been 10 years since the start of our war in afghanistan. they increasingly express frustration with our american presence, we still remain in the country. how it got to this point is in rachel maddow's new book "drift." in it she makes the point how

much easier it is for the united states to go to war. also drones that made fighting less costly to the public, perhaps most significantly, fewer and fewer americans actually serve in the military these days are even affected by the war in terms of their families. rachel maddow joins us from new york. she's the host of "the rachel mad dow show" and my beloved colleague. rachel, what you've done here is briskly sharp and important, which a way to put it all together in a way i've never seen done. all these factors making it easier for the average person out there who is non-military to say go ahead with this war. >> thank you, chris. that's nice of you to say and thank you for having me on to talk about it. i'm not an expert on the

military, i'm not an expert on war. i never served. my father did but i didn't grow up on military bases or anything like that. this is a book about politics and our politics about war and about this feeling that i think a lot of the people in the country have had, whether you're left wing or right wing or even if you don't care about politics that it didn't feel like we're a country that went to war in afghanistan. we're a country that sent the military to war and let them go to work. and the military's lives have been so different in the last decade, and the book is essential about why we got to feel this way and why it feels so wrong to us. >> let me ask you about afghanistan because that's the case in point right now. i know it's frustrating, especially for americans with family members. the horror of that guy who was just arrested for the killing of all those civilians over there was in his fourth tour, three in iraq, one in afghanistan. it does seem whatever the courts decide about his guilt or measure of guilt, it does seem

to be what's wrong, the overuse of a very small portion of our population when the rest of us are not even paying attention. >> when leon panetta went over there and talked to troops in afghanistan, he said, we will be challenged and we will be challenged by war itself. i don't agree with leon panetta on everything but i do agree with him on that. our reaction to afghanistan is horrifying. here horrified and it makes us question the war, but it also sees him as the perpetrator of the crime almost as if he was one of the casualties. it tells you how much we're concerned about how much we've overused our military. it's not normal for a country to have 1% of its population looking at three, four, five or more military deployments and we're also figuring out how big our next tax cut should be. we're very separate from it and i don't think we like it.

i think it makes us uncomfortable. >> i know some families who have very high educational backgrounds themselves and their children do as well, and their have gone off and become military officers in the field over there. but they're the exception. today the elite in america, especially the academic elite, and the people who run for president whether it's president obama or the republicans, it's that they're so representative of the country as well as the people in the past who did serve in military reactions were representative of their actions. now no one is even bringing up the fact that you've never made the slightest effort to serve this country in the way you're asking others to do. >> you hear that in the criticism both from the left and the right, sort of the chicken hawk right. how dare you debate somebody else's blood, somebody else's life when none of yours has ever

been on the line, but the fact remains that our system is that the military does not decide when and where it is used, the military takes orders from civilian leadership that's elected from our democratic population, and we democratically elect people to put themselves in civilian roles who get to decide what happens to the military. and the military wants it that way. the military doesn't want a draft, for example, the military doesn't want to be asked whether or not we ought to invade iran. the military wants civilian control and they want civilians to pay attention to what we're doing with the military. they don't want the separation, either. i can't tell you how much feedback i've gotten saying i'm glad you're talking from a civilian perspective. sometimes it feels like it's only us in the military who talk about military matters. it shouldn't be that way. we should get to decide how to choose. >> take a look at this recent poll, the "new york times" cbs poll. in the war on afghanistan, we

should not be involved, 69%. 23%, we're doing the right thing. so we're anti-war in afghanistan. let's look at the tricky part. let's look at the iranian prospects right now. 56% support u.s. military, not israeli, action if there is evidence of a nuclear weapons program, 39% opposed. is it possible we're in the habit of getting tired of wars? there is war fatigue but not generally. certain fronts become tiring, and yet we're just as perhaps trip wired, ready to go in the next fight. >> that's exactly the right question. and do we think of our military as being super capable? you think of them as having super heroic powers. the thing that bugs me in the casualty of iran is this idea it could be easy, something we could do at the snap of a finger and nobody will pay for it.

military action against iran should be debated on its merits, but nobody on either side shouldn't be under an illusion that it would be something wouldn't take intense sacrifice. things we can't spend money on, things we can't spend attention on, it will mean lives that end, it will be american blood and treasure in significant amount if we do that. it gets talked about as if it's frictionless, cost free, in a way i would expect us to be more tired of in the past ten years. >> people like barack and netanyahu, they're beginning to calculate the consequences of an attack on those installations in iran. they expect to have hezbollah attacking, so they've looked into the consequence. i think when you look at the cuban missile crisis, the worst people are those who don't talk consequences or minimize them. it seems in the iraq fight and people who debate that, they're like, oh, it will be a cake walk, it will be over in a couple weeks. we'll get cheap oil out of it,

all kinds of jobs. remember that, the arguments? it's always the cost benefit analysis that says go to war. >> it will pay for itself, is my favorite, that we will somehow reap some sort of loop in having it pay for itself. i think what's happened is we've come up way series of decisions, some them more craven than others, but all of them understandable to make war less of a hassle. so we figured out ways the president can wage war without congress. if the president wants to wage a war as a national security interest that he can't persuade the public on, we figured out a way to do it without debating with the public, sometimes keeping it entirely secret from the public. we don't want the public to get upset about the cost, we tell them it's free. we don't want the public to get upset about the blood spilled

there, we bolster with people who work with private companies. we don't know what their services cost, we don't know who is accountable for them when they do something wrong, and we don't recognize who they are when they get killed or hurt. it's all around ways to make it more visible, more slick and now we wage wars and feel it's not our decision to make, it just happens. it puts us in a position that is both morally and emotionally unsettling for the country, and i don't think it's irreversible. i think we can change those things and get back to what i think is a more normal relationship as a country that goes to war as a whole rather than one that just sends the military off on its own. >> i like the way you demand people to listen as fast as you can talk and think, and they actually can. and i think you're going to prove that people can keep up with you. the book is called "drift, the unmooring of millitary power." you can read it in a few days and learn what you need to know. this is not a casual book, it's an important book. >> thank you. >> you are a great colleague to have around here. and by the way, when i say you speak fast, there is an economy

to your words which is striking, and in your recent op-ed piece in the "washington post," you display it again, the ability to put a lot of thought in a few words. this book will look small, but it's really big. thank you very much for coming on the show. >> thank you, chris. >> it's the opposite of everybody else in this world. police video seems to contradict george zimmerman's account of the night he shot and killed trayvon martin. zimmerman told police trayvon attacked him and punched him in the nose, perhaps broke it. but the video shows no sign, apparently, as you see him here, of any broken nose or serious injury to his head. this is "hardball."

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this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here. former president george herbert walker bush and former first lady barbara bush are formally endorsing mitt romney, formally. he said he voted for mitt romney before and barbara bush even formed a robocall on his behalf. the bushes, the first couple of the '80s. we'll be right back. i'm al ways looking out for i'm al small ways to be more healthy.

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we're back. new video of george zimmerman from the night trayvon martin was killed has raised questions about zimmerman's account from what happened that night. footage obtained by "abc news" shows zimmerman being brought into the sanford police station in handcuffs. according to the report, zimmerman told police trayvon martin punched him in the nose, knocking him to the ground and his father says his nose was broken and slammed into a sidewalk. reports show him bleeding from his nose and back of his head with what appeared to be wet grass, however skrks none of these jury's peer to be visible. ron is reporting and sara h horowitz is an investigator from the "washington post."

>> the surveillance camera does pack a lot of apparent information showing no damage to this man who claimed ha tof been brutally beaten by the man he killed. >> a couple things, chris, first, the tape, what you're seeing is 40 minutes or so after the gunshot was fired. it's pretty soon. zimmerman's defenders emphasized he was treated by paramedics, at the scene in the back of a police car and he was, as you say, cleaned up. that's why you don't see blood, they say. also, we were able to zoom into the back of his head and there is some sort of abrasion. on the back of his head, which seems to suggest and give more credibility to his story. ultimately, the bottom line is how much bodily harm do you have to endure before you can legally fire a gun in self-defense in this state. witnesses said they did see martin on top of zimmerman. there was some kind of fight witnesses say. you have to put all the pieces

to the puzzle together. a lot of people are saying, don't rush to do many conclusions because of this six minutes of videotape. >> let me go to sarah, anything to add there. i guess the question is always, what happened? what happened? did he hold the gun entree von and say stop beating me up or just shoot him? we don't know any of these details. >> of course. it's a complex case as all deadly forces cases are because there is no one who actually saw the shooting. there were people heard screaming. >> let's jump to that question. we only have a little time. what about the tape-recorded sound of someone yelling for help? will we be able to determine that fairly soon whose voice that was or not? >> well, the state special prosecutor, angela corey has brought in independent experts to enhance that tape. that's a critical bit of evidence who's screaming help.

people close to george zimmerman, his family and father, who gave an interview last night said that's clearly george zimmerman screaming for help. his mother said that is trayvon. experts will have to analyze that piece of evidence. >> tonight's story, what is going to be the lead right now? where will we leave it at midnight at this point? >> reporter: right now, it's the videotape. is the one of the unique characteristics of this story, like the audiotapes, people have been watching it all day kicking it around and forming their own conclusions. no one cared about this case nationally, the family did, didn't get a lot of attention until they heard the 911 tapes and seeing the six minutes of video. there's a lot of emotion and outrage and people are making up their minds about this. people who support zimmerman will see what they want to see and people who support trayvon martin will see what they want

to see. there has to be some sort of resolution in this matter. >> resolution. will we get there. thank you, ron allen for the nbc news and sari horowitz for the "washington post." i believe rachel maddow in her new book that war is too painful for most of us and too easy to start. open up. we have come for the foul, unholy beast. the one with the red markings. the miracle whip? stand aside that we may burn it. [ indistinct shouting ] have you ever tried it? it's actually quite sweet... and tangy. ♪ i like sweet things. [ man ] shut up, henry. ♪ here's a chance to create jobs in america. oil sands projects, like kearl, and the keystone pipeline will provide secure and reliable energy

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let me finish tonight with this. rachel maddow, my colleague on msnbc has just published a sharp argument against the modern american propensity to make war. it makes a brisk case that this country's leaders, men of the right, have made it easy to fight bite-sized wars like grenada and we the citizenry are kept from the pain and the interest the war once drove in our population. in her book, entitled "drift," she takes off the painkillers that create the delusion of peace even in the war's reality. she said we know there are wars going on abroad but do not feel that life and death struggles being carried out by the united states. congress doesn't formally declare war anymore, immigration to appropriate the money in so-called emergency spending long ago become both routine and untouchable. we fight wars with the help of private contractors who do work

once done by soldiers in uniform. we kill terrorists by drone strikes rather than close engagements. for years we kept the tv cameras from the entry point of dover, delaware for the fallen to return home. together, each of these steps has separated the conduct and horror of war from the main population. to subtract, even further, presidents like george w. bush have offered up wartime tax breaks to make sure no one gets the idea that wars cost money. i think the book needs to be read by everyone who watches hardball, the kind of argument that makes this show work best. takes apart the current argument by opening up history and shows the pattern of behavior from seeing the situation four square. we do not see what we are doing because there are those who do not want us to see it. they want us to keep doing what they want us to do and thinking too much about it might get in the way. that's "hardball"